Love is Blind, and Apparently Deaf
by sonicblue99
Summary: While on a hunt, Cas gets hit with a witch's spell and loses his hearing. Written for a prompt on Tumblr.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Yet another thing that I wrote to get past writer's block. Once again, all credit goes to tumblr; the prompt was 'one is deaf and the other learns sign language for them AU'. This is set somewhere in season five, when Cas is losing his 'mojo'.**

Damn witches. Dean _hated_ witches with a burning passion. They were always throwing curses left and right, and as if that wasn't enough, they were hunting a _possessed _witch. Which meant that not only did she know everything that a witch should know, she also had all of the powers of a demon.

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

Dean heard Sam grunt from somewhere off to his right as he was thrown against one of the old cabin walls, crashing through it to land outside somewhere.

Ouch. That had to hurt.

Dean quickly finished mixing together the ingredients for the spell they needed to weaken the witch's part of the power, dodging objects being thrown around the small room by the witch. Cas and Sam had been put in charge of distracting her while Dean worked on the exorcism and spell, but it didn't look like it was going too well.

Still ducking under the curses the witch was flinging everywhere, Dean ran over to the witch and dumped the contents of the bowl he was holding on her head.

He watched, fascinated, as black smoke also began to pour out of her mouth. Guess the demon was more of a coward than he had thought. Her body slumped to the floor, burnt out. Sam crawled back in through the hole in the wall, ready to continue the fight, but found that his work was already done for him.

Dean laughed, somewhat shakily, and congratulated Sam and Cas for a job well done. However, when only Sam answered, Dean spun around, worried for Cas. Had he been hit and Dean hadn't noticed it?

Cas was sitting on the floor, looking slightly stunned, while a small trail of blood dripped from his ear.

Dean rushed over to him, kneeling down in front of him to catch his attention. "Cas! You okay man?" he asked, holding Cas' head so he had to look at him.

Cas blinked heavily, looking up at Dean with confusion. "Dean?"

Dean sighed in relief. "Don't scare me like that, man. I thought you got hit by one of her spells."

Cas didn't reply, just furrowed his eyebrows. "Dean, I can't hear you."

Dean's smile froze on his face. His eyes flicked over to the blood that was still dripping out of Cas' ear. "Sam!" he called out, and immediately Sam was right there with him, ready to take on the new problem. Then he saw the blood, and Cas' apparent lack of response to anything they said.

"What happened?" he demanded, relaxing his defensive stance, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"It's Cas, man, I think he got hit by one of the witch's spells. Can you hear anything?" This last part was directed at Cas, who remained silent, glancing between the two brothers. There was a tense, somewhat awkward pause, before Dean cleared his throat and said, "Okaaay. Apparently not."

Cas interrupted, "Dean, the witch's spell seems to be affecting my hearing." Though he sounded calm, his wide eyes and quickened breathing gave away his anxiety.

_You sorry son of a bitch, _he thought, _can anything go right lately? _Heck, all of their plans to stop the apocalypse had failed, Cas was slowly falling, Dean was on the brink of saying yes to Michael, and now _this_? The whole damn universe seemed determined to make life as shitty as possible for the Winchester brothers and company.

Whining about it wouldn't get anything done, though. No, right now they had to focus on Cas' apparent deafness. "Cas," Dean said, making sure to speak slowly, "can you walk?" He waited for Cas' hesitant nod, and hovered over him while he slowly got to his feet.

The three of them were able to make it back to the Impala without any major difficulties, though there were a few alarming sways on Cas' part and a few stray tree roots tripped over.

They piled into the car, Dean taking off as soon as all the doors were closed. After a brief stop at the motel to get their bags and check out, they roared down the highway, heading to Bobby's.

A few hours later, they pulled into the gravel driveway, all injuries bandaged during the trip. At least Cas had managed to catch a few hours of sleep on the road. Later Dean would swear up and down that _no, Sammy, I was not 'gazing at him fondly'. What, did you suddenly turn into a girl when I wasn't looking?_

Dean, to avoid the chick-flick moment that was close to happening, roughly shook Cas awake. He sat up, groggy and disoriented. "I don't think I like sleeping, Dean," he said plainly and far too loud. Of course, the guy probably couldn't hear himself.

Dean just nodded, gesturing for him to head inside the house. Sam knocked on the door, but Dean didn't wait, brushing past a shocked Bobby to deposit Cas on the couch. Bobby stared for another second, clearly taken aback, before he turned to Sam and furiously demanded, "What did you two idjits do this time?"

"Cas got hit by a curse and it took away his hearing. We didn't know what to do, Bobby."

At hearing Sam sound so shaken, all of Bobby's anger evaporated. "It'll be okay, son. We can fix this." He directed him towards a towering pile of books by the window and started to sort them.

Dean was left standing awkwardly with Cas, unsure of what to do. Bobby only had so many books on witches' spells, and he would just be getting in the way if he tried to help. He was about to go over there anyways, before he heard Cas speak up.

"Dean, you wouldn't happen to know sign language, would you?"

With the hopeful tone in Cas' voice, Dean didn't have the heart to say no. Holding up one finger for Cas to hold on, he rushed to start up the laptop.

It didn't take long to find a website with the basics, and it was with slightly shaky hands that Dean carefully signed, _C-A-S?_

Cas' smile was bright enough to light up the entire room.

**Two months later**

_Cas, do you ever miss being able to hear?_ Dean signed as they lay in the salvage yard. He had become fully fluent in sign language by now. Though they had tried everything they could think of to reverse the spell, Cas' hearing hadn't returned. He'd finally told them to stop, saying that he was okay with it. They could make it through, like they always did.

So it was with great reluctance that Dean had put away the search for answers, for good. Instead, he had tackled sign language with a vengeance, something which Cas was extremely grateful for.

"I guess… I'm adjusting to it, like everything else. Just another part of being human." He laughed, but it sounded empty. "I'm dealing with it."

_Cas, you know we'd never… we'll always be here for you, alright? I'll always be here for you._

"Thank you, Dean."

And as they settled back in to watch the starry night sky, Dean knew they'd be okay.


	2. Chapter 2

**So I got inspired by all the attention this was getting, and decided to do a part two! Think of it as a Fourth of July special :)**

Brilliant colors splashed the darkening evening sky, turning the spectators' faces beneath them red, green, and gold. Castiel felt the explosions in his chest as he looked over to where Dean was sitting beside him, eyes lit up brightly with both the reflection of the magic in the sky, and with joy.

The unidentified feeling in his chest swelled, like it sometimes did in moments like this. Castiel had learned a lot about how to be human in the months since he had fallen, but the emotions tied to every little thing still baffled him at times.

Dean noticed Castiel looking at him, and nudged him with his elbow. _You should be watching the show! _he signed quickly. _This sort of thing only comes around once a year._

Castiel felt his face heat up, and hoped fervently that it wasn't showing in the dark. He cast his gaze back up to the sky as directed, but it was only a few minutes before he found himself once again enraptured with the human beside him.

He didn't want Dean to think he wasn't enjoying the fireworks, so he was carefully sure to keep looking at the sky most of the time, but he kept sneaking glances at Dean when he thought he could get away with it.

In all of his time living as a warrior of God, Castiel had thought he'd seen all of the beauty there was to see in the world. He'd seen every single sunset and sunrise, every perfect storm, the rise and fall of every empire known.

And yet, none of it compared to what he'd seen during his time on Earth with the Winchesters.

Castiel didn't know how to explain what he felt. He supposed it was something similar to how Sam and Dean felt about each other, but not quite the same.

The feeling in his chest didn't waver once throughout the whole show, only grew. After the finale, they packed up the dusty picnic blanket they had dug out of Bobby's basement, and drove back to the salvage yard.

Throughout the whole drive, neither of them was able to stop smiling. Castiel knew he had to do something about the emotions blossoming between them. Heart beating wildly in his ears, he reached over to hold Dean's hand, waiting for the inevitable moment where Dean pulled his hand away, saying things like _we can't _and _I like you, but not like that. _

However, that didn't happen. To Castiel's surprise, Dean jumped, but after Castiel pulled away, scared he had crossed boundaries that weren't meant to be crossed, Dean reached over and linked their hands together himself.

Now Castiel could feel his pulse from his ears all the way down to his toes, his stomach clenching, but not in a bad way.

When they reached Bobby's house, Castiel pulled his hand away to get out of the car, sure that that would be the end of it, but was shocked when once again Dean grabbed his hand and lightly started swinging it as they walked to the back of the house, where Castiel could see firelight flickering faintly.

Bobby and Sam were sitting around the campfire, along with a woman Castiel had only gotten to know very recently. Jennifer—or as she liked to be called, Jenny— had apparently been a friend of Sam's at Stanford, who had moved back to Sioux Falls after graduating to be closer to her family. Sam had happened upon her while out grocery shopping, and had asked her to lunch. They had officially become a thing a month or so ago, and the rest, as they said, was history.

Castiel had rarely seen Sam as happy as he was when he was with Jenny, and he was glad that they had found each other.

If he sometimes wished that he and Dean could be like that, no one had to know.

_Hey Cas, _Sam signed, then reached over to hand him a stick and a marshmallow. Castiel knew what to do with these. He had become quite fond of the treat known as _s'mores_ ever since he had first been introduced to them.

Dean had been overjoyed when he had realized that he was now responsible for teaching Castiel all the things that came with being human. Things that included campfires, and s'mores.

As they roasted their marshmallows, they made idle chatter, Sam, Jenny, Dean, and Bobby both signing and talking so that Castiel could be included. His heart warmed as he thought of just one of the many things the Winchesters and their extended family had done especially for him.

Dean's marshmallow caught aflame, much to Sam and Castiel's chagrin. Castiel preferred his just barely toasted. When Dean had incredulously asked him how he could possibly like _raw _marshmallows, Castiel hadn't said that it reminded him of angels' wings burning as they fell, and hellfire. He had just shrugged and said they tasted better that way.

Dean caught them looking at each other, and shook his head. "You two are so weird," he said while simultaneously signing. It was a skill that had taken some time to learn, but Dean had been persistent. Now he was signing like the best of them.

They talked for hours more as the fire slowly died down, and, one by one, they slowly drifted indoors. First Bobby, then Sam, and Jenny, until Dean and Castiel were left alone with only the dying embers for company.

Castiel decided to take the chance to talk about what was going on between the two of them. Before he could steel himself to, however, Dean beat him to it.

_I've been thinking, lately, about us. About this… thing between us, whatever it is. And, Cas, this may ruin everything, but I can't hide this any longer… I think… I love you._

Castiel was unable to even think in his shock. It was as if Dean's words had flipped some switch in his head, causing only static to exist in its wake.

_Cas? I understand if you don't feel the same way, but I thought you should know. _He paused. _Please say something._

"Is that what this feeling is? In my chest?" was all he could manage to say.

Dean gave a relieved laugh. _Yeah, probably. _

"I thought it was only me. Dean, does this mean… are we like Sam and Jenny?"

Dean signed slowly. _I guess… if we want to be, we can be. It depends. Do you want to… be like Sam and Jenny?_

When Castiel carefully nodded, Dean's smile was brighter than the fireworks lighting up the night sky.


End file.
